Sony today announced its 2014 flagship smartphone, the Xperia Z2, that at first glance resembles the previous premium phone until you look at the fine details of the new device. The Xperia Z2 continues Sony's use of TRILUMINOS color and brightness tuning for the 5.2-inch 1080p HD display. There's also a "Live Colour LED" with an RGB set-up for better color quality. The Xperia Z2 is also tuned for sharpness and less noise when displaying photos or video.

The Omnibalance design trend also continues, so the phone has a dedicated camera key, power button, and volume buttons along the right side of the device. Ports are covered by movable flaps in order to maintain hallmark features like waterproof and dust resistance (IP58 and IP55 respectively). Internally, the phone has a 2.3 GHz quad-core processor (Qualcomm Snapdragon 801) with an Adreno 330 GPU. Also present is a 3GB of RAM and a 3,200 mAh battery with STAMINA Mode.

Sony has upgraded the Xperia Z2 camera to have a 20.7-megapixel lens with a 1/2.3 Exmor RS sensor and BIONZ image processing. It's the same set-up that we've seen in recent Sony products, though this new camera is capable of capturing video in 4K resolution with SteadyShot. The Ultra HD video records at 3,840x2160 and is capable of slow-motion video through the on-device software. The device includes a stereo microphone for improved recording.

Sony expects the Xperia Z2 to launch "globally" in March 2014. Details about market launches have not been announced; however, given the history of Sony in years past, Europe and Asia are on deck to launch the phone first.